Comments on: Conky - a light weight system monitor for Ubuntu Linux Systems

By: cck

cck — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:56:34 +0000

For those of you having trouble with the config file, simply create a new file named .conkyrc in the home folder of your user. (for me this would be under /home/cck)If you search google for conky config files you can also copy them down and replace the .conkyrc file with them. It lets you try out many people’s configurations and you can see what works for you. If you don’t like your configuration, simply delete the file and start over.

By: ady

ady — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:33:00 +0000

how can i have two conky at desktop on different side?
please help me i’m a new user.

By: Amir

Amir — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 01:02:54 +0000

I have figured out the solution to my problem. I was root when running conky. running it without being rooted fixed this for me. Hope this helps you guys. I accidentally figured this out by forgetting to root before i ran it.

By: CSW

CSW — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:09:32 +0000

Same as amir and indypat. Mint 9.

By: Indepat

Indepat — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:56:58 +0000

Amir I am getting the same problem when using ubuntu 10.04. it’s also saying the same thing about fixing the problem……..were u able to fix that??I seriously need help……

By: ramzport

ramzport — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:58:09 +0000

Conky+Lua looking great. Can collect any panel

By: peter

peter — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:55:30 +0000

Your conky is great for standard conky
I don’t understand why not use for start
setting in ubuntu distros
I like this configuration as standard!

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:23:44 +0000

Using Mint Helena BTW

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:23:19 +0000

Conky: missing text block in configuration; exiting
***** Imlib2 Developer Warning ***** :
This program is calling the Imlib call:

imlib_context_free();

With the parameter:

context

being NULL. Please fix your program.

I get that error message when trying to run conky. any help?

By: DavidB

DavidB — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:28:11 +0000

I’m having trouble with conky myself as well. I should say I’m an extreme n00b, I have Ubuntu 9.10. I installed X11-dev then installed conky thru the terminal, followed instructions from a separate ubuntu forum post, and when i went to run conky from the terminal, I got this:

Conky: border_margin is deprecated, please use window.border_inner_margin instead
Conky: statfs ‘/home/tmo’: No such file or directory
Conky: desktop window (22000cf) is subwindow of root window (ff)
Conky: window type - override
Conky: drawing to created window (0x3e00001)
Conky: drawing to double buffer
Conky: statfs ‘/home/tmo’: No such file or directory
Conky: obj->data.cpu_index 2 info.cpu_count 1
Conky: attempting to use more CPUs than you have!
Segmentation fault
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # UBUNTU-CONKY
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window yes
own_window: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_type override
own_window_type: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_transparent yes
own_window_transparent: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_hints: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ double_buffer yes
double_buffer: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # fiddle with window
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ use_spacer right
use_spacer: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ use_xft yes
use_xft: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Update interval in seconds
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ update_interval 3.0
update_interval: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Minimum size of text area
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ minimum_size 200 800
minimum_size: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Draw shades?
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ draw_shades no
draw_shades: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Text stuff
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_outline: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ draw_borders no
draw_borders: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ font arial
font: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Stippled borders?
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ stippled_borders 3
stippled_borders: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # border margins
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ border_margin 9
border_margin: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # border width
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ border_width 10
border_width: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ default_color grey
default_color: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_colour brown
own_window_colour: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_transparent yes
own_window_transparent: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Text alignment, other possible values are commented
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #alignment top_left
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ alignment top_right
alignment: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #alignment bottom_left
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #alignment bottom_right
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Gap between borders of screen and text
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ gap_x 10
gap_x: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ gap_y 10
gap_y: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # number of cpu samples to average
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # set to 1 to disable averaging
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ cpu_avg_samples 2
cpu_avg_samples: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ text_buffer_size 1024
text_buffer_size: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # stuff after ‘TEXT’ will be formatted on screen
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ TEXT
TEXT: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ $color${font arial:size=9}
bash: $color${font arial:size=9}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ $nodename@$sysname $kernel on $machine${font arial:size=8}
bash: $machine${font arial:size=8}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Battery ${battery_bar 6 BAT0}
bash: ${battery_bar 6 BAT0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}CPU $color
bash: ${color orange}CPU: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${freq}MHz${alignr}Load: ${loadavg}
MHzLoad:: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${alignr}${loadgraph 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}
bash: ${alignr}${loadgraph 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ CPU Total:${color} ${cpu cpu0}% ${color}${alignr}Temp:${color} ${acpitemp}
bash: ${cpu cpu0}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${alignr}${cpugraph 0 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}
bash: ${alignr}${cpugraph 0 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Core one: ${color}${cpu cpu1}% ${alignr} Core two: ${color}${cpu cpu2}%
bash: ${color}${cpu cpu1}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${cpugraph 1 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}${alignr}${cpugraph 2 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}
bash: ${cpugraph 1 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}${alignr}${cpugraph 2 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ NAME${alignr}PID CPU% MEM%
NAMEPID: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 1}${alignr}${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
bash: ${top name 1}${alignr}${top pid 1}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 2}${alignr}${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
bash: ${top name 2}${alignr}${top pid 2}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 3}${alignr}${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
bash: ${top name 3}${alignr}${top pid 3}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 4}${alignr}${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
bash: ${top name 4}${alignr}${top pid 4}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}MEMORY / DISK $color
bash: ${color orange}MEMORY: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Total: ${color}${memmax} ${alignr} Free: ${color}${memfree}
Total:: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ RAM: $memperc% ${alignr}Swap: $swapperc%
RAM:: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${memgraph 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E} ${alignr} ${swapbar 20,120 }
bash: ${memgraph 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ root: ${fs_used_perc /}% ${fs_bar 6 /}$color
bash: ${fs_used_perc /}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ home: ${fs_used_perc /home/tmo}% ${fs_bar 6 /home/tmo}$color
bash: ${fs_used_perc /home/tmo}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}WIFI (${addr wlan0}) $color
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `${addr wlan0}’
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${wireless_essid wlan0} ${wireless_link_bar 6 wlan0}
bash: ${wireless_essid wlan0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Down: $color${downspeed wlan0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed wlan0} k/s
bash: $color${downspeed wlan0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${downspeedgraph wlan0 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph wlan0
> 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}$color
bash: ${downspeedgraph wlan0 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Total: ${totaldown wlan0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup wlan0}
bash: ${totaldown wlan0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Inbound: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count} Outbound: ${tcp_portmon 32768
> 61000 count}${alignr}Total: ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}
bash: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}LOGGING $color
bash: ${color orange}LOGGING: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${font arial:size=7}${execi 30 tail -n 10 /var/log/messages | fold -w45}

Some help please?
Or how can I delete it to reinstall fresh?
.

By: Muzafsh

Muzafsh — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:12:38 +0000

Hi,

thanks, I think i have figured out the issue. Looks like the below command (for displaying the Public IP) and its implementation, for some reason was making my conky choppy and the subsequent issues i was facing.

${execi 1 ~/.scripts/ip.sh}

my conky is chirping again.

By: Muzafsh

Muzafsh — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:55:14 +0000

Hi,

I configured my first conky config, and honestly been addicted to it.

Everything was working fine until yesterday before i logged off for the day.

Since today morning i started facing conky freezing issues. it used to freeze for seconds together, kind of choppy ! Have been trying to get it back to the performance it displayed yesterday but haven’t succeeded.

I realize there was an auto update (Ubuntu 9.04) today morning. Could that have messed up something ?

Now whenever i start conky through the application menu or startup entry. It either doesn’t display anything but continue to run when veiwed in the system monitor. If it starts then its pretty choppy. nowhere close to yesterday’s ‘Grand Premier’ opening i happen to witness. but not for long

However when i launch the app through the terminal, the terminal freezes at the following with no display on the desktop.

”
Conky: desktop window (a5) is root window
Conky: window type - normal
Conky: drawing to created window (0x3a00001)
Conky: drawing to double buffer
”

and when i close the terminal window, i get the display on the desktop but in a froozen state !!!

Can you please help me fix the problem ?

PS: following were the auto updates that where installed
”
Upgraded the following packages:
dhcp3-client (3.1.1-5ubuntu8.1) to 3.1.1-5ubuntu8.2
dhcp3-common (3.1.1-5ubuntu8.1) to 3.1.1-5ubuntu8.2
google-chrome-unstable (4.0.295.0-r35884) to 4.0.302.2-r36665
”

thanks.

By: Strychnine

Strychnine — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:28:14 +0000

I know this probably sounds silly, but how does one create a configuration file?

By: psypher

psypher — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:52:22 +0000

neither adding double buffer not the xorg.conf edit or adding the utf line makes any difference to flickering. this has been like this since jaunty working perfectly in intrepid

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:42:09 +0000

Satish, the importance of Conky to me as a sys admin is that usually a lot of systems are connected to one monitor and mouse (KVM connections). With Conky I can look at the desktop and tell which system I am working on or looking at.

By: Satish

Satish — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:08:34 +0000

Sorry,but i cannot see the main purpose/significance of conky??

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:37:32 +0000

Thank you for spending your time making this great tutorial! Jim

By: Milan

Milan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:34:59 +0000

At what line is the end of the code to be copied? Is it all above the line:
“You can also extract the sample file using the following command”?
Milan

By: Brayden

Brayden — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:11:44 +0000

Thanks a million! I love conky, If only it was a bit easier to configure the damn thing.

By: Indecision

Indecision — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:56:09 +0000

you dont need to edit the xorg.conf,
if you add the line :
“override_utf8_locale yes” (no quotes)
will stop the flicker, you may need to look and see if there is a similar line which says “no” in which case you can omit the line that contains “no”, just thought that it might help.

Also you can do some really funky stuff, I would suggest for new users the weather and lyrics add-ons, it takes some learning, but its not tough in the slightest and the result is often good, the chrunchbang forums have a really good conky thread upon which i stole most of my config